A common theme we see a lot of in our news coverage here at CU Times is the noncompetitive nature of credit unions – the fact that they choose to support one another instead of fight over new business, members or employees. For example, it's not unusual for a credit union to recommend another cooperative to a potential member or employee, simply because it may be a better fit for their financial needs or skill set. What matters most to many credit unions is the success of the movement as a whole, and their unified philosophy isn't something you'll find in a lot of industries (ahem, banking).

We've been continuing to see examples of credit unions' ability and willingness to lift one another up, and what's even more encouraging is they tend to do so unconditionally. They come together whether the circumstances are serious and dire, or celebratory and fun. Here are three ways credit unions demonstrated their cooperative spirit in just the past few weeks.

Hurricane Florence

In the days leading up to Hurricane Florence's landfall on the North Carolina coast, fear was everywhere. We were told this could be the most catastrophic storm to ever hit the east coast, and while it in fact weakened at the eleventh hour, bringing a sense of relief to many people who expected to be hit harder in their regions, the reality is Florence has left more than 40 dead and sent thousands of people to shelters when their neighborhoods flooded.

As it has during past hurricanes, the credit union community rallied to provide aid to employees and members in Florence's path. Efforts included a $1 million grant to local food banks from the SECU Foundation in Raleigh, N.C.; an $18,000 donation to the Carolinas Credit Union Foundation Disaster Relief Fund from SAFE Federal Credit Union in Sumter, S.C., which it raised in just two days; and gift cards from Amoco Federal Credit Union in Texas (which suffered Hurricane Harvey's wrath last year) for disbursement by the Carolinas Credit Union League. Your credit union can still help those who need resources by making a donation at cuaid.coop.

Portland CU Career Fair

In plenty of industries, employers will do everything in their power to avoid losing a top-performing employee to a competing organization (and maybe even get bitter and burn a bridge with the employee if their attempts fail). The credit union industry isn't one of them.

Now, some credit unions do view other cooperatives with similar fields of membership as competitors. But others, which in my opinion are destined for greater success, view all credit unions as members of the same family and banks as their competitors. Nine credit unions in the latter camp recently gathered together for what so far has been my favorite demonstration of the noncompetitive nature of credit unions – a career fair in Portland, Ore.

While Unitus Community Credit Union of Portland hosted the event at its headquarters, it wasn't branded as a Unitus-specific event, but rather a joint event where representatives from each participating credit union had an equal opportunity to talk to job seekers about open positions at their institutions.

In an onsite interview, Unitus Community Chief Human Resources Officer Gayle Evans said there are many career paths professionals can take without leaving the industry. “Let's say someone wants to become a VP of marketing, but that position is filled [at Unitus],” she said as an example, adding if they were to take that position at another CU, she would be happy for them and welcome them back in the future.

Here's what really made this career fair badass: It took place in a very visible location outdoors, signage clearly labeled it as a credit union career fair, and music from a local DJ drew the attention of passersby, including employees from two big banks located next door to Unitus, KeyBank and Wells Fargo. It was a shameless nudge to bankers to consider switching to a financial services job that they would find more meaningful, and it appeared to work: “We spoke with people from a bank a block away,” Evans revealed.

A Summer of Steps

Sometimes, credit unions join forces not to make someone's life or career, but just to promote balance and fun. In a recent press release that caught my eye, Firefly Credit Union in Burnsville, Minn., announced it had completed a summer fitness challenge, “Let's CU Step Into Summer,” with approximately eight other credit unions around the country. Supported by hubbub, a corporate wellness program provider, the challenge allowed employees from the participating CUs to track their steps by syncing a wearable fitness tracker with hubbub's platform or entering them manually, and compare their step counts with other credit unions' teams throughout the process. Firefly's team ended seven million steps ahead of its two million-step goal.

“We've done a steps challenge before with our own employees, but I think it was just fun that it was the first time we were able to band together as an organization to see what we could achieve with our hard work, collaboration and teamwork, while engaging in a different type of friendly competition with other organizations,” Firefly Human Resources Generalist Lisa Trinka said.

And when employees make connections outside of their own credit unions, who knows what can happen? Anything from a new friendship to a new business process idea could develop.

As demonstrated in the past few weeks, healthy competition between credit unions can encourage motivation and prevent complacency, but when serious help is needed in a community, CUs have no trouble banding together as one. And when it comes to facing their actual competitors, like the nine Portland credit unions did at the career fair, they aren't afraid to show how fierce they can be.

Natasha Chilingerian is managing editor for CU Times. She can be reached at nchilingerian@cutimes.com.

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Storms to Steps: Credit Unions Come Together in Good Times & Bad

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